1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods and devices for sanitary disposal of organic waste products, and more specifically, to systems for treating aqueous human originated organic waste products containing both liquid and solid.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
A number of systems have previously been proposed for disposing of organic waste materials by the application of heat in various forms. Many of these incorporate an incineration type unit in a compact space for treating and sanitizing human waste in remote locations--that is, a portable toilet type structure which sterilizes and sanitizes the waste prior to disposal.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,700,565 to Cornish, et al., a portable toilet system is disclosed for disposing of human waste or sewage using a microwave unit for the purpose of sterilization and vaporization of the liquid phase of the sewage. In some forms of the invention described in the Cornish et al. patent, the thus vaporized liquid can be recondensed and recycled for flushing purposes.
In Rascov U.S. Pat. No. 3,431,563, after comminution of organic wastes containing both liquid and solids, the comminuted waste is mixed with oil and is then flushed onto a rotating screen which is mounted for rotation about a horizontally extending axis. The oil and water pass through the screen, and the solids are carried upwardly by the screen into proximity to heating elements where they are dried or burned, and the ashes are then dropped off the screen into a collection drawer.
High oscillatory frequency electrical energy is utilized in accordance with the procedure described in Martin U.S. Pat. No. 2,700,775 for generating sufficient heat in collected solid material in a toilet to incinerate this material. According to the Martin patent, both solid and liquid wastes are simultaneously incinerated. The ash produced by the incineration in dropped into an ash collection tray until a sufficient accumulation is present to warrant removal and dumping. The incineration of the material is aided and substantially speeded by the presence of ozone.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,676,058 to Gray, microwave energy is used for sterilization purposes by supporting various articles to be treated on a rotating turntable. The articles are carried under the microwave source as the turntable turns through a certain sector, and sterilization is thereby affected. The Gray disclosure is not, however, concerned with the treatment of sewage.
Other patents dealing with organic waste disposition include McKenzie U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,044; Boucher U.S. Pat. No. 3,926,566; Blankenship U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,227; Turner U.S. Pat. No. 3,882,552; West U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,857; Riedel et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,755,827; Swallert U.S. Pat. No. 3,589,276; and Graef et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,768,386.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,273, the patentee suggests that microwave energy cannot be used effectively or efficiently for the regeneration of activated carbon from organic waste materials. The patentee implies that high frequency dielectric heating can only be used for non-conductive absorbents, which, by the patentee's definition, excludes activated carbon.